I was lucky again – Part 2 by Jolene Oung

…..continued from part 1

As I walked out of the room I thought I was in heaven! My mind was empty, I was overwhelmed and all I remember was Ean walked towards me and said “Come here, you are shaking” and he gave me a big and tight hug. I kept thanking them and told them their interview was great!

“You guys are the best! Your interview is never boring and you guys always make David laugh”. JJ was so pleased to hear that as he thought he didn’t do that well as he was tired. I thanked Melissa again, if it was not because of her I wouldn’t be there, we exchanged contacts and said goodbye.

 Now I had to rush to Fahrenheit as the rest of the fans were already there for the signing. I was soooo excited! The whole journey to Fahrenheit felt like 5 minutes for me even though it took me an hour as I was overjoyed to see David again! My aunt called and asked where was I as David has arrived and started singing. I was still caught in the jam near Pudu (and I left before David, apparently the Sony girl told me they used the back lane) so I decided to skip the jam and parked at Jalan Alor. It was pretty far but I ran so fast I think I got to Fahrenheit within 10 minutes. David was already on stage signing so we started queuing up to get his autograph. I was really happy seeing all the fans there, some who I have met 2 years ago and it was great to see a lot of new faces too.

 I didn’t plan what to say to David this time as I have just met him and had the most wonderful moment with a conversation that was more than a sentence and a live interview, what more should I ask for?

 So when it was my turn I just passed the lyrics booklet to David and said “Hi David, it’s me again!” He looked at me and immediately he recognized me and said “Heyyy” with his charming smile as always and after the signing I didn’t intend to say much since I had just spoken to him earlier, usually I’ll try any ways to get him to talk (well any fans would do that) but this time I just said “Thanks David! I’ll see you tomorrow!”

 As I took the booklet and about to leave David looked at me and for the first time, he asked me a question!!! He looked really curious and asked “WHERE ARE YOU FROM ACTUALLY?” I almost died at that moment!

David just asked me a question! I was silent for a moment as I didn’t expect him to ask me anything! I trembled and answered him “Ermm I’m from here, KL…” He looked at me and said “Ohh…” We both looked at each other and I wish I knew what to say as he was just looking at me expecting me to say something or at least gave me a chance to say something but I didn’t know what to say! How useless! I wonder what crossed his mind and made him asked me that question!!

Maybe because I was always alone when I met him the past couple of times so it got him curious perhaps…Anyways, I didn’t know what else to say so I told him “My name is Jolene by the way” and he replied “YEAH I KNOW!”. Either he was just trying to make me happy or he really remembered my name I didn’t really care which one, I felt like the HAPPIEST GIRL ON EARTH!!! I said bye to him again and told him I’ll see him tomorrow. He smiled and said bye…I would never forget that moment!

I know this is really long so I think I’m going to cut it short but I have to mention this…I met so many great people and had such wonderful time hanging out with everyone at Times Square the next day before David’s concert and conquering the washroom where all the fans changed into AAM and some Archie T-shirts haha… We all proudly walked out of the washroom calling ourselves the craziest fans of David, sharing our experiences how David made us do things we have never done in our lives!!

David and the band left us in awe after the concert!! It was just too amazing! I just wished we could have a group photo with him like what we did 2 years ago. Unfortunately it didn’t happen this time. So I suggested we should all go to Hilton and  I had a feeling we will meet David. So some of us went and waited patiently at the café on the lobby. Twenty minutes later the band walked in and everyone was so excited but we didn’t see David! Anyway, I approached the band and asked them if we could have a group photo with them and all 3 of them – Mark, Ben and Steven were happy to say yes to us.

Steven was standing next to me so I asked him ‘Where is David?” He said “Oh David was hungry so they took him to have something to eat”. So I asked more “Why didn’t you guys join them? Aren’t you hungry?”

From the conversation I found out some VERY USEFUL information. Steven replied “Oh I’m not that hungry, just wanna get back to the room and have a rest coz we are having very early morning flight tomorrow. We are flying to Hong Kong first”. Thanks to Steven’s info, that’s how I got to meet David the next day!

We waited for more than an hour and David was still not back yet. I had a feeling he used a different way to enter his hotel room as the band might have informed Jeff or David that there was a big group of fans waiting at the lobby. I was feeling a little disappointed…I thought I was not that lucky after all. I was tired too so we left together with some fans. I haven’t give up though, on the way home I told Jonathan let’s go home and check David’s flight! Steven said they were having early morning flight to HK, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be that difficult to track. The moment I arrived home, Anne messaged me and said David arrived the hotel 5 minutes after we left so some fans managed to meet him! My heart stopped for a moment…I just missed the chance to see him! I was glad for the fans but I was so upset with myself for leaving early and I told myself I had to try to meet him at Hilton the next morning no matter what. I was really exhausted but I know if I didn’t try I would regret for the rest of my life so Jonathan and I decided to go even if we were only going to have 3 hours sleep.

Set my alarm at 5.15am and Jonathan came to pick me up at 5.30. We arrived Hilton before 6am and we sat at the lobby, both of us were so sleepy but I tried keeping my eyes open. Ten minutes later we met Amira and Anisz, they said Jeff told them the night before if they would like to meet David they can wait for him at the lobby at 6.50am (if I’m not mistaken). Not long after that we saw Steven, Mark and Ben!! We knew we were going to see David!!! I was glad we estimated the right time to be there and thanks to Steven too!! I was sooooo happy!!! At least our 3 hours sleep was worth it!

We first approached Mark and wished him good morning and he looked a little surprise to see us there. We had our individual photo with him. Then came Steven and he saw us so I wished him “Good morning! Did you have a good sleep?” He replied “Morning! It was not bad…did you guys meet David last night?”

So I told him David arrived five minutes after we left and we didn’t get to see him but some fans did. He said “Aww that’s too bad…so you guys just got here? Where do you live?” I replied “We live 20 minutes away from Hilton and decided to come, see if we can meet David before he leaves”.

We started talking about a lot of stuff. Steven said he loves Asia and this whole trip was so exciting for him and the band. This was his first time to Asia. They really enjoyed themselves but then they got sick after eating some kind of fruits in Manila so they stopped being so adventurous with food after that.

Steven is just amazing, he is so approachable and he really shares what he feels with the fans. I don’t remember how we got to this topic, he told me they will be flying to Japan on the 3^rd August but he asked me to keep it to myself first and they will announce the news soon! I was so excited as I know how much David wanted to go to Japan! Steven said they just got the news the night before and David was really excited! They were supposed to perform for the Japanese navy according to him. So he said they only get to be home for 3 days. What an exciting news I thought! David will be in Asia again next week!

He was sick first and then followed by Mark and Ben. So I asked him “What about David?” He replied “He was alright though. It was only us. He tried even more food than us, David is really adventurous with food especially in Manila he tried different kind of local food”.

We talked so much I don’t really remember the sequence of our conversation, then he told me how much he loves music and he started playing drums since 2. I told him it’s amazing to be able to do what he loves and make a living out of his passion and he said “Yeah I’m really thankful to be able to travel to all these cool places to play music it’s really awesome!”

Then I asked him “How is it like to be working with David?” He said “Oh he’s great, we have the same groove in music. We all work together very well. In fact, I knew Mark and Ben way before and when I met them at the audition we asked each other “what are you doing here?” haha…We all went to the audition at the same time and it was great that we got picked to work with David!”

Then the next topic, the one I LOVE the most! He said “We all think KL IS BY FAR OUR BEST STOP!” I replied happily, “Really? Come on Steven don’t try to make us happy!”

Then he replied “No it’s true! Other countries were great too but we had less problems in Malaysia.” So I asked him “What problems??” He replied “Oh well people here all speak English so it was really easy for us but other countries we had problems with the technical issues like soundcheck, we need a translator but over here it was so easy.

AND THE FANS OF COURSE!!! Malaysia is the only country when we came out from the airport and you guys sang!” I was thrilled hearing what Steven just said! Then I replied “But I thought the fans from other countries did that too?” He said “No they just screamed” (Maybe the fans sang before they saw David and lost control when David appeared, well we totally understand that, who doesn’t scream when they see David?) Then he continued “And everyone knew the lyrics and sang along during the concert it was really cool!”

Then I told him “Yeah David has a lot of great fans in Malaysia! It was because of the hundreds of phone calls and emails to Sony, they decided to bring David here! Do you know this is the first time Sony as a music label doubled up as an organizer for the concert? They really had a lot of faith in David!”

I remember Steven looked so amazed and replied “Wow! Really?!! I didn’t know this!” Then Jeff came and Steven asked him “Hey do you know because of the fans Sony decided to have this concert?”

Jeff replied “Yeah I know! Same thing happened in Manila. The organizers said “Do you know why we decided to bring David here? Because the fans wouldn’t stop calling!”

Steven still looking a little shocked said “Wow you fans are amazing!” We introduced ourselves after that, after such a long conversation…we shook hands and he said “Give me a shout out in twitter, are you in my twitter?” I replied “Yes I am but I don’t think you will remember me after awhile”.

He replied “Just say the girl who spoke to me at the hotel lobby haha”. Then I said “Just remember Dolly Parton’s song, Jolene and you will remember me, that’s  my name. David sang this to me 2 years ago!”

Later, I asked Jeff “Jeff can I have a photo with you before you go?” He turned and looked at me “Of course! How can I say no to such a polite lady like you?” Jeff is such a sweet man. We took a photo and I asked him “David is still in his room? Aren’t your flight at 9.25am?”

He looked at me shocked and said “You know better than I do! I don’t even know what time our flight is!” He grabbed his itinerary out from his bag and as he was looking at his flight details he said “Mike is the one who usually takes care of all our schedules. He is so good that I don’t need to worry about stuff  like that so I can concentrate on the creativity part…You know how some people are born to be a good manager and I’m just not that kind, I’m more of an entrepreneur or a creative director, coming up with ideas and brainstorming with people.”

Then all of a sudden I heard Amira and Anisz said “It’s HIM, it’s HIM!!! There he was with a stripes shirt and his backpack (reminds me of 2 years ago when I met at the airport, he was carrying his backpack too). He looked sleepy…poor David, he must be really tired with all the crazy hectic schedules and had to wake up so early.

There were four bodyguards escorting him and as he was walking towards us I gave Jeff a quick hug and wished him a good flight then turned to David and said “Hi David, we are just here to say goodbye” David stopped and said “Awww thanksss…”

Then Amira was so excited she took her phone and stood next to him and took a photo. Then I asked David if we could have a group photo with him real quick so we won’t take a lot of his time and of course David said yes and smiled.

 

After the photo I think Amira and Anisz told him to make a video blog soon then the bodyguards kind of rushed and ushered David towards the entrance but before he walked off he turned his head around (I stood behind him) and waved to me then said bye. I slowly followed David to the entrance and he got into the back seat of the car (exactly where he sat when he arrived KLIA on Monday).

Steven called my name suddenly “Joleneeee…I will remember you!” He hugged me and said “You are a great fan! We hope to be back soon!” I was really touched and replied “Awww thanks Steven! You are such a nice guy! We hope to see you again soon! Have a good flight and take care!”

 

Then I turned around to look at David again and he was actually looking at me!! That was the longest we ever looked at each other, it was a little awkward as we were just looking at each other for like 5 seconds!! So I smiled and he smiled…Then Mike thanked the 2 ladies from Sony and he said “KL, THE BEST TRIP!” Jeff got into the car, lower down the window and thanked the lady too then David and Jeff shook her hand. As the car was slowly moving Jeff waved at us and said bye then David waved at us too!

 David, you have left us with such wonderful memories….beyond measure!